Dallas Mavericks: Franchise players in each NBA Team – NBA Feature Part 6
Dirk Nowitzki – Dallas Mavericks
Perhaps the greatest shooter of all time, even better than the legendary Larry Bird, Dirk Nowitzki finally lived up to his potential in the season before the last when he led an above average Dallas Mavericks side all the way
through to the NBA finals, and then single handedly orchestrated a 4-2 thrashing of the Miami Heat.
The German giant had been the alpha dog in his team for a very long time, but for one reason or the other, they always used to suffer disappointments in the playoffs.
That ended in the 2010-11 season, but from there on in, started a series of money saving/ rebuilding decisions by the Mavs front office which saw players like Tyson Chandler and Jose Juan Barea leave.
Chandler, especially, was a big loss. The seven foot centre was a free agent but the Mavericks considered he is not worth the money and instead kept their salary cap intact for pursuing Deron Williams and Dwight Howard.
We all know what happened next.
Chandler went on to become the defensive player of the year with the New York Knicks, Williams re-signed with the Brooklyn Nets and Dwight Howard landed at the Los Angeles Lakers just last Friday.
Add it to the fact that Nowitzki’s good friends Jason Kidd and Jason Terry also left in the off season and he certainly had the right to be angry.
However the picture is not all that gloomy.
Mavs did turnaround their off season by acquiring some prolific assets from the free agency after the D-Will fiasco. The names include Elton Brand, the man who took the Los Angeles Clippers into the playoffs five years ago, Chris
Kaman a good frontcourt player and O.J. Mayo, potentially a superstar, who was underused at the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Mavs also traded for Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Ian Mahinmi, and have developed a new but potent roster by doing so. For them, it all depends on what mood Nowitzki is in when the
next season begin.
If the sharpshooter is his prolific self, unlike the last season when he mostly seemed disinterested, his new team will click and I would not be surprised if the Mavs go on to spring a few surprises.
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